(All images courtesy Boston Pizza and John St.)
For a long time, I thought I was the only one who loved opening pizza boxes for the sole purpose of imagining two very tiny people seated at the little hunk of plastic inside — the table-like object keeping the top of the pie away from the box. But at Canadian pizza restaurant Boston Pizza, the invisible mini-people have chairs, too. The restaurant partnered with advertising agency John st. to create the Pizza Patio Set, available in a limited run for the summer. The Pizza Patio set consists of “the pizza saver,” plus two thumb-sized patio chairs — scaled-down reproductions of real outdoor furniture sets — 3D-printed with food safe materials and nestled into warm, melted cheese.
Better described as the white plastic thing that sits at the center of the pie, the pizza saver was invented by Carmela Vitale on February 10, 1983 to prevent the box’s inevitable sagging into the pizza. Novelty aside, the chairs look pretty appropriate.
“As long as I can remember, people have said those delivery pizza savers look like little patio tables,” says Paul Little, Creative Director at John st., as quoted in a press statement by Boston Pizza. Little continues,“As soon as we had the idea to make the little chairs to go with them, we knew we had something great. It just makes everyone happy.”
This is not the first time Boston Pizza and John st. have turned pizza-eating into a sublime, silly experience: their last collaboration was a box that transformed into a tray for bed-friendly pizza consumption. Now if only someone would make gigantic, furniture-sized pizza …
Alls you need now is a hole in the table and a LITTLE drink umbrella .